IMF: Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong (Banker Bailouts)

For approximately three years, our governments, the banking cabal, and the Corporate Media have assured us that they knew the appropriate approach for fixing the economies that they had previously crippled with their own mismanagement. We were told that the key was to stomp on the Little People with "austerity" in order to continue making full interest payments to the Bond Parasites -- at any/all costs.

Following three years of this continuous, uninterrupted failure, Greece has already defaulted on 75% of its debts, and its economy is totally destroyed. The UK, Spain and Italy are all plummeting downward in suicide-spirals, where the more austerity these sadistic governments inflict upon their own people the worse their debt/deficit problems get. Ireland and Portugal are nearly in the same position.

Now in what may be the greatest economic "mea culpa" in history, we have the media admitting that this government/banking/propaganda-machine troika has been wrong all along. They have been forced to acknowledge that Iceland's approach to economic triage was the correct approach right from the beginning.

What was Iceland's approach? To do the exact opposite of everything the bankers running our own economies told us to do. The bankers (naturally) told us that we needed to bail out the criminal Big Banks, at taxpayer expense (they were Too Big To Fail). Iceland gave the banksters nothing.
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Iceland's voters in a weekend referendum overwhelmingly rejected a plan to repay the British and Dutch governments billions in debts from a failed private bank, though they are, in essence, being bribed by the IMF to vote yes. by Alex Newman

Iceland's economic meltdown, with skyrocketing unemployment, bankruptcies, political corruption and bank scandals, can teach Americans about the crises being unleashed on our own country. By James Heiser

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The author gets it a little wrong. There have been cutbacks in Iceland. More to the point however it was President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson decision to stand with the people rather than his banker friends and financial ministers that made the difference.

Ólafur Ragnar, who was originally elected president from a field of four candidates with 42 percent of the total vote, has from the outset been a controversial figure. Not only is he the first president to use the authorization given in the 26th article of the constitution to put a law from the Alţing, or parliament, to a national referendum, he also had close ties to the directors of the Icelandic banks that collapsed in a memorable fashion in the autumn of 2008.

Without his invoking Article 26, there never would have been a national referendum. The overwhelming public support that followed enabled the prosecution of the banksters, that continues to this day.

Gunnar is said to have been charged with having committed violations as a public servant. The charge is reported to have been issued in mid-June 2012. Violating confidentiality can result in up to three years in prison.

Gunnar is said to have appointed an employee of Landsbanki with the task of obtaining information on the finances of Independence Party MP Guđlaugur Ţór Ţórđarson. The data is then thought to have been passed on to the newspaper DV, which ran a story based on the information.

The usual manipulations of the government by the banksters has become more difficult.

"They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars. I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why. They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are but theyre never the ones to fight or to die." - Jackson Browne Lives In The Balance

Exactly, it was President Grimson who did his job as president, and supported the constitution. Something I have always noted about him. He was recently re-elected, as opposed to a younger woman who had children, and her husband was going to be look after them, who actually has firm rights in comparison to UK women or American women. Ha.

The author gets it a little wrong. There have been cutbacks in Iceland. More to the point however it was President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson decision to stand with the people rather than his banker friends and financial ministers that made the difference.

Thanks for pointing that out! I did feel that the author was taking the Webster Tarpley "Asking people to quit depending on government = austerity" nonsense approach. I don't mind government shrinking. I just don't think I should be taxed to pay interest on debt ran up by someone else's greed.

“The Gordon Brown government decided, to its eternal shame, to put the Icelandic government on a list of terrorist states and terrorist phenomena. We were there together with al Qaeda and the Taliban on that list.”

The EFTA Court is planning to announce its verdict in its cases against Iceland because of the Icesave deposits on Monday. The Icesave trial covers two cases filed by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) against the Icelandic state.

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"They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars. I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why. They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are but theyre never the ones to fight or to die." - Jackson Browne Lives In The Balance

Iceland has won both its cases in the Icesave trial, as announced by the EFTA Court at 10:30 GMT this morning.

The Icesave trial covers two cases filed by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) against the Icelandic state.

XNN

"They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars. I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why. They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are but theyre never the ones to fight or to die." - Jackson Browne Lives In The Balance

Eventually, Iceland held a national referendum to decide whether to pay back the British and Dutch governments. The people voted that, no, Iceland should not repay the foreign governments. (Here's our story on the referendum.)

After that, the British and the Dutch took Iceland to court, to try to make the government pay. The ruling came down this week — and, basically, Iceland won. (This Reuters story has more details.)

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"They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars. They sell us every thing from youth to religion the same time they sell us our wars. I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why. They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are but theyre never the ones to fight or to die." - Jackson Browne Lives In The Balance

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